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Mr. President, 2013-2016: Address fiscal cliff, economy first

By Erika Stutzman

Posted:
11/07/2012 01:00:00 AM MST

First the good news: The economy is not, despite what some doomsday television advertisements would have you believe, in a freefall. Following the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the U.S. economy has been in a period of slow, sluggish growth. It has been adding jobs, but not fast enough to counter a high unemployment rate, and some facets -- notably, the stock market -- have roared back to life.

The bad news is that we face some heady challenges that could jeopardize the recovery, and those things must be addressed now.

President Barack Obama must work with the U.S. Congress immediately on the fiscal cliff. At midnight on Dec. 31, weeks before an inauguration, workers will be hit with an immediate tax increase and deep automatic cuts will affect everything from the defense industry to Medicare. Economists warn the policies, if not changed, will spur another recession and increase unemployment.

The next step for the president elected to serve until the end of 2016 will be to continue to address the economy. While the fiscal cliff is certainly the least desirable way to do it, we do need to raise revenues and slash costs. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the wealthiest Americans is just one approach -- defining "wealthiest" and finding what goodies or loopholes everyone else, including savvy upper-middle and middle class families, may not have in the future are areas where both sides should be able to come to the table.

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The costs of health care need to be addressed as well. While expanding coverage is the economical and, frankly, moral thing to do, not enough has been done on the cost-control side. And the cost of our defense and unfunded wars must be addressed as well.

Now comes the laundry list: You could start with Afghanistan, work your way through comprehensive immigration reform, and land on climate change and an energy strategy, including investing in clean energy technology. These will all pile high on the plate of the president.

But thanks to Congressional gridlock and the determination to see the president "fail" -- no matter the expense to the American people -- that presidential plate is a flimsy one.

So what the president must do early in his term, and what the famously unpopular, unproductive Congress must do, is address the roots of that problem. Rules of the filibuster must be changed, including the elimination of secret holds, so that the minority of elected leaders cannot hijack the lawmaking process.

And the corrosive nature of campaign spending has never been clearer. And with all those billions at stake, the race for the White House in 2016 basically starts today. That fact alone will suck a lot of the air out of the list of things -- the fiscal cliff, taxes and the economy, immigration reform -- that need to be addressed by serious men and women today.

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